2019 Review and New Goals for 2020!

2019 was overall a good year for me in terms of meeting the goals under my control, as well as my net worth goal easily in a strong bull market year, but I failed to meet my performance goal relative to the market, as well as my dividend income goal which was actually a blessing in disguise (more on that later).

A summary of all my goals since inception of this blog can be found under my Goals tab.

2019 Goals Revisited
I set 6 goals at the beginning of 2019 to meet by end of the year. The first four are financial and the last two to help me stay current and maintain a sharp mind. All of these goals are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-based (SMART).

1. Reach a net worth of $1,600,000.
2. Beat the S&P500TR.
3. Receive $19,000 in dividends.
4. Save 95% of my after-tax income.
5. Read 50 books.
6. Read the bible in one year.

Goal #1:
Reach a net worth of $1,600,000.

Achieved!

My Net Worth Update - End of 2019

My net worth increased from $1,292,823.80 on 12/31/18 to $1,843,840.69 on 12/31/19. In 2019, my net cash inflow (from active income less expenses) was $163,561.43. 

Organic growth = ($1,843,840.69 - $163,561.43) / $1,292,823.80 -1 = 29.97%.

Inorganic growth = $163,561.43 / $1,292,823.80 = 12.65%.

Total net worth growth = 29.97% + 12.65% = 42.62%.

Income & Expenses For December 2019 and Year End Summary

Since 2014, I have been tracking my monthly income and expenses. You can see a breakdown of every penny I earn and spend. For perspective, this budget is for a household of two in a small US city. 

By documenting my journey, I aim to demonstrate the feasibility of saving a significant portion of your income and provide some ideas and inspiration for your own budget.

Below are my income and expenses for December and full year 2019, as well as those of 2018 for comparison. You can see all my monthly budgets here.

Here is the breakdown on the 106 books I read in 2019

One of my goals for 2019 I set at the start of last year was to read 50 books. I was pessimistic about meeting this goal and figured only 40% chance of achieving it, based on the assumption that I would try to meet the goal using only print books and not using audiobooks.

Well, I am happy to report that I crushed this goal by a huge margin, exceeding it by a whopping 112%! What changed?

For one, I had more free time than I imagined. Work has slowed down in my job and I found myself with more free time available for reading, though admittedly not all devoted to reading or spent efficiently (darn those addictive games!).

Also, things changed about half way through the year, as I found the Overdrive app a good way to listen to many interesting audiobooks from my library for free during my commutes. Before, I had tried another audiobook app that was cumbersome to use. With the much more user-friendly app, I am routinely listening to audiobooks on my commutes which is about 2 hours each day.

Here is the list of all 106 books I read in 2019:

Net Worth Update December 2019: $1,843,840.69 (+$52,935.13, +2.96%)

Welcome to my monthly net worth update! Here is how my assets, liabilities, and net worth have changed over the past month:

	Beginning balance on 12/1/2019	+ Cash inflow /(outflow)	+ $ P/L	= Ending Balance on 12/31/2019	% P/L	% Equity
ASSETS
Current assets
Cash	1,210.61	2,453.98	0.00	3,664.59	0.00%	0.20%
Bonds	25,735.97	(179.62)	(201.98)	25,354.37	-0.78%	1.38%
Stocks	1,361,231.32	5,101.47	33,573.09	1,399,905.88	2.47%	75.92%
Total current assets	1,388,177.90	7,375.83	33,371.11	1,428,924.84	2.40%	77.50%
Tax-deferred retirement account	251,729.58	1,975.03	6,834.71	260,539.32	2.72%	14.13%
Roth IRA	96,719.90		2,887.83	99,607.73	2.99%	5.40%
Home	44,496.00		0.00	44,496.00	0.00%	2.41%
Gold	15,767.28		570.81	16,338.09	3.62%	0.89%
Other non-current assets	283.07		8.42	291.49	2.97%	0.02%
Total assets	1,797,173.73	9,350.86	43,672.88	1,850,197.47	2.43%	100.34%
LIABILITIES & EQUITY
Liabilities
Current liabilities	593.60	122.69	0.00	716.29		0.04%
Long-term liabilities
Student loan	5,674.57	(34.08)	0.00	5,640.49		0.31%
Other non-current liabilities	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00		0.00%
Total liabilities	6,268.17	88.61	0.00	6,356.78		0.34%
Equity (net worth)	1,790,905.56	9,262.25	43,672.88	1,843,840.69	2.44%	100.00%

Net worth: Bottom line up front, my net worth increased by $52,935.13, +2.96% this month due to marked-to-market investment gain (+$43,672.88, +2.44%) and net cash inflow ($9,262.25, 0.52%).

Here is the breakdown of my balance sheet:

Portfolio Update December 2019: Bought 30 Stocks

The time has come for my monthly portfolio update. At the end of every month, I will update my portfolio and comment on any changes. I do that for accountability and also so you may glean some ideas on how I allocate my capital. You have the opportunity to learn from what I do well so you can do the same, as well as what I do poorly, so you will not have to repeat my mistakes.

Follow my real-time portfolio here. Below is a snapshot of my stocks and ETFs portfolio as of 12/31/19: